124 Responses

And call me crazy, but if we get another referee like last night, and Fallon continues to lead with his elbows again, we'll have a blunted strike force - I wasn't suggesting Herbert would "rest" Fallon, more like not risk him collecting another yellow if the group stage yellows aren't wiped before the knockout round.

And if he plays like he did today in the round of sixteen, NZ risks being down one man. He needs to play and watch the elbows - there's no reason why one of your strikers should find himself needing to be booked to get the team out of trouble, so he should play. And assert himself physically, but at the same time be smart about it.

I liked that the ref didn't send him off today and gave him a final warning instead. That was the right thing to do.

Various comparisons about the All Whites result have made with rugby - e.g. it's like Japan drawing with the All Blacks. It's one of those hypothetical questions that there is no right answer to, and in many ways we should just celebrate the great result and forget about the oval ball game for a few days.

However, I enjoy numbers so I've applied some maths to the problem. I took the most recent FIFA rankings and normalised the top 100 countries points - that gave Italy .67 and NZ .08, so a difference of .59. The problem now is, how to compare that to rugby. As there are significantly less rugby playing nations than football, I took the top 20 countries from the IRB rankings (you may think that this number is too low, but...) and did the same maths.

So, by my reckoning it was equivalent to a draw between Ireland and Romania, or a draw between NZ and Italy or Fiji. I prefer the Ireland comparison as Italy are not ranked no. 1 in the football world and from my maths Ireland has equivalent points in the rugby rankings to Italy in the football rankings.

So, by my reckoning it was equivalent to a draw between Ireland and Romania, or a draw between NZ and Italy or Fiji. I prefer the Ireland comparison as Italy are not ranked no. 1 in the football world and from my maths Ireland has equivalent points in the rugby rankings to Italy in the football rankings.

I haven't come across any complaints, no. The consensus seems to be that while Smeltz was offside it would have been a tough to call to make, and that De Rossi was fouled but milked it for all it was worth.

It's quite popular in some parts of the country, almost completely uknown in others. It's not played by kids except in those few areas, unlike soccer over here. On the other hand, Italian rugby fans don't seem to have any major chip on the shoulder about the evils of soccer, so that's a notable difference.

The consensus seems to be that while Smeltz was offside it would have been a tough to call to make

I've watched that again and I reckon if Smeltz had not played the ball it may well have been an own goal. As for the penalty, well, penalties don't count as "proper" goals, especially those gained for an Oscar winning performance. I wonder how the game would have played out with a "Real" football? it may well be a factor in light of the consistent low scores.

Smith committed a foul, you know. It may be one of those fouls that often gets overlooked, but it was a foul nonetheless. De Rossi made sure the ref saw it. It's exactly what Smeltz would have done if it had happened at the other end of the park. Although frankly this is getting quite boring - can we go back to praising the All Whites for a historic performance, instead of whining?

Same goes for the complaints about bloody ball, to be honest. Brazil doesn't seem to have too much trouble blasting it into the net I've noticed.

Apparently if we draw with Paraguay by the same amount as Slovakia draws with Italy then it will come down to a coin toss between us and Italy!

Is that seriously the next thing they use to decide? Not 'least number of penalties' or something?

Smith committed a foul, you know.

I don't know much about the rules of the game, but I thought it was a foul on replay. The Italian player made it a lot more obvious, which I don't like, but I thought Smith was still holding his top when he pursued the ball coming across the goal and that seems worthy of a penalty to me.

I suspect actually the Italian wouldn't have gotten near it, but that's Smith's bad luck/judgement.

Brazil doesn't seem to have too much trouble blasting it into the net I've noticed.

Exactly.*

And I was about to say that at least New Zealand (particularly Ricki Herbert) has been mostly future focused and positive, but I hear Nelson may be a few coins lighter after letting rip on the ref. Can't find a reference, but the guy next door seems to know what's going on.

* They may have 'milked' plenty of free kicks, but none of their players were booked for 'simulation', although they were 'simulating' a team of amateurs in another sense.